SSC Napoli beat Juventus 6-5 on penalties to win the Italian Supercoppa on Monday and deny Massimiliano Allegri a first trophy in charge of the Bianconeri.
Rafael saved Simone Padoin’s final penalty after Kalidou Koulibaly had converted to win the match for Napoli, despite Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon saving three spot-kicks.
The match ended 2-2 after extra-time, with Napoli forward Gonzalo Higuain twice canceling out strikes from Argentine compatriot Carlos Tevez.
Photo: AFP
“Everyone should be happy, beating such a strong team like Juve is wonderful,” Napoli coach Rafa Benitez said. “I am happy for Rafael, I am happy for Higuain, I am happy for everyone who believed in us... It’s my 12th trophy, my 10th cup, but what matters is that we won this for Naples and our supporters.”
It was end-to-end action at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha, much to the delight of the sellout crowd of 14,000 fans, who loudly cheered every Juventus attack.
“It was a good game,” Allegri said. “We didn’t manage to win on penalties despite three match points. I’m disappointed, we played well apart from at the start of the second half.”
Photo: Reuters
The traditional season opener between the Serie A champions and the Coppa Italia winners had been rescheduled because of international commitments. The victory was a revenge for the Azzurri, who lost to Juve in the same competition two years ago.
Juventus, who jointly hold the record number of Supercoppa victories, were looking to move clear of AC Milan with a seventh win and got off to the perfect start after a defensive howler from Napoli.
Raul Albiol and Kalidou Koulibaly collided when trying to clear David Lopez’s poor back-header, allowing Tevez to race clear and beat Rafael one-on-one with barely four minutes on the clock.
Photo: AFP
Marek Hamsik went close to an equalizer when his effort took a deflection off Giorgio Chiellini to leave Gianluigi Buffon stranded, but the ball hit the right post.
Tevez almost doubled his tally, but was denied twice by good saves from Rafael after more poor defending by Napoli.
Napoli recovered and Higuain could have sent his side in at halftime level only to be thwarted by a fine diving save from Buffon.
The equalizer finally came in the 68th minute when Jonathan de Guzman raced down the left flank and whipped in a cross for Higuain’s precise header.
Juventus restored their lead moments into the second half of extra-time as Paul Pogba set up Tevez, who dummied to carve out some space on the edge of the area before drilling low into the left corner.
Buffon pulled off a great reaction save to deny Higuain, but could not prevent the Argentine from leveling two minutes from time.
In the shootout, the Italy goalkeeper saved spot-kicks from Jorginho, Dries Mertens and Jose Callejon, but Tevez sent his crashing off the post and Roberto Pereyra blasted off target, while Rafael denied Giorgio Chiellini and Padoin.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB